Do the best pro-bass players mainly play 4 strings?

[chris_b]

I went to see a Victor Wooten bass clinic and he was asked about his basses. He said he would always use his 4 string bass at clinics because he's most comfortable doing the "show off" stuff on a 4, but he uses 5, 6 and fretless on other gigs. Unsurprisingly he'll use what ever is appropriate for the gig.

Ian King posted a video on BC of him playing on Hamilton. He's using electric, bass, double bass and bass keyboards.

The "best pro players" don't seem to have the hang-ups that so many semi pro players do.

[Sibob]

If you're a 'Pro' player, you'll use whatever instrument is best for the musical situation you're in. Secondary to that, it's what the player is comfortable on and has a preference for.

Simple as that.
Si

[mike f]

1 hour ago, BrunoBass said:

Flea played a Stingray 5 on The Righteous and The Wicked from BSSM. The rest of the album he played a Wal (mk2 IIRC)

He used it on Funky Monks too, and if you go back a little further on the b-side track “Show Me Your Soul”.

[Johnny Wishbone]

24 minutes ago, mike f said:

He used it on Funky Monks too, and if you go back a little further on the b-side track “Show Me Your Soul”.

Beat me to it!  I think he also used it on "Under The Bridge", but that might just be because the video for that track shows him playing the Stingray?

Edited July 11, 2018 by Johnny Wishbone

[paul_5]

Do most of the best players use a 4 string? Probably.

Most of the worst ones do too...

[EBS_freak]

And some of the most successful bass players only use the bottom E string...

[stingrayPete1977]

It always comes back to Adam Clayton doesn't it, lol

[EliasMooseblaster]

I might venture that the question is flawed statistically, as it's probably a safe bet that more players globally - pro, amateur, semi-pro, and every level in between - are still playing 4s than 5s. So you could propose that, just on probability, more famous basslines are likely to have been played on 4s than on 5s.

So yes, there are more famous bass players who have (predominantly) played 4s, but as a proportion of all the 4-string players worldwide, how does that compare to the relative proportion of famous bassists who favour a 5?

We should probably apply some kind of weighting to this. If there were, say, twice as many 4-string players as 5-string players in the world, we might want to make a famous bassline played on a 5 worth two basslines played on a 4. Going further into ERB territory, 6s and 7s are even rarer, so 1 Anthony Jackson might be worth 50 or 100 Adam Claytons.

And that's before we split hairs about those bassists who flit readily between 4s, 5s, and others, and how they balance their time between them; whether we count 8/10/12-strings in the same category as 4/5/4, or as separate entities; whether we can really count it as a 4-string bassline if the player spent their entire career on the E and A strings...am I overthinking this?

[thebigyin]

All my favourites do

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

It always comes back to Adam Clayton doesn't it, lol

Rumour has it, he's a hot jazzer.

Edited July 11, 2018 by EBS_freak

[Lozz196]

5 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I did want make some cheeky comment here about our punk brethren not wanting to be considered "intellectual" by being able to count to more than 4 (are there any punk tracks not in 4/4?) but I must resist! 😂

In all honesty I rarely use more than the E & A, the D being visited now & again and the G only in one song.

So you may well be spot on, Baz

[Al Krow]

6 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

In all honesty I rarely use more than the E & A, the D being visited now & again and the G only in one song.

So you may well be spot on, Baz

Yeh, but with your Fender P bass and Paradriver pedal, you sound just great!

[discreet]

Not all pro players are 'famous' (by a long chalk) so it's impossible to tell. And it's a moot point really, anyway. I have an inkling that the vast majority of pro players (meaning someone who makes a living out of playing bass) use four-string Squiers. But that's just my opinion and I can't prove it, so there.

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

...am I overthinking this?

Have you considered taking an evening class on the overlap between actuarial science and bass playing?

20 minutes ago, discreet said:

Not all pro players are 'famous' (by a long chalk) so it's impossible to tell. And it's a moot point really, anyway. I have an inkling that the vast majority of pro players (meaning someone who makes a living out of playing bass) use four-string Squiers. But that's just my opinion and I can't prove it, so there.

I thought we had established 'beyond reasonable doubt' on another thread that you could do just about anything on a Squier?

Edited July 11, 2018 by Al Krow

[discreet]

1 hour ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

...am I overthinking this?

Almost certainly.

[discreet]

4 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I thought we had established that you could do just about anything on a Squier?

Yes. So I rest my case, such as it is.

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Meddle said:

On the other hand, there's Pegg on the bass
Whose tastes in food are very much wider
You'll see a smile light up his face
At a couple of kippers and a glass of cider!

What a delightful rhyme..! You're such an angel for having posted that. 

[pete.young]

48 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

What a delightful rhyme..! You're such an angel for having posted that. 

It's part of the lyrics for the song Angel Delight. Played by Dave Pegg, as with virtually every Fairport recording, on his trusty Fender Precision. The Ibanez is a recent acquisition.

[Huge Hands]

On 11/07/2018 at 09:22, Lozz196 said:

Tools for the job, most of the theatre acts and music shows I`ve seen the bassists have used fivers,

I could of course be very wrong, but I think a lot of modern theatre/music scores are specified as written with a 5 string in mind.

I seem to remember being involved in a cabaret show as a sound guy and the bassist told me he'd had to get a 5 string because the score demanded it - lots of low Ds and Cs etc.

I'm assuming some 4 string bassists would jump up the octave or use drop tuning - I guess it would depend on how lenient the MD/director was.

[EliasMooseblaster]

4 hours ago, Huge Hands said:

I could of course be very wrong, but I think a lot of modern theatre/music scores are specified as written with a 5 string in mind.

I seem to remember being involved in a cabaret show as a sound guy and the bassist told me he'd had to get a 5 string because the score demanded it - lots of low Ds and Cs etc.

I'm assuming some 4 string bassists would jump up the octave or use drop tuning - I guess it would depend on how lenient the MD/director was.

Is this the danger of leaving pianists to write most musicals? I'm sure I've heard similar anecdotes of guitarists having conniption fits when their MDs insisting on them sticking to the written chord voicings...

[JapanAxe]

55 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Is this the danger of leaving pianists to write most musicals? I'm sure I've heard similar anecdotes of guitarists having conniption fits when their MDs insisting on them sticking to the written chord voicings...

In a big band I have occasionally been presented with impossible guitar chords - closed 5-note voicings that would be a piece of cake on keys, but would require 9-inch fingers to execute on guitar!

[Grangur]

On 10/07/2018 at 19:08, BigRedX said:

Absolutely!

I'd come to that conclusion too. I guess, though, it depends on what music you listen to.  I'm certain that, although jamiroquai get great acclaim for the basslines, I'm certain a lot are synthesized. 

Today i was listening to Elvis Costello today and the way Bruce Thomas changed from finger-style to pick and back again with great speed is amazing.. or is it 2 tracks. Then it was confirmed when you can hear both bass lines at the same time.

I wonder how many 5-string bass lines are recorded on a 4-string and, after recording, the whole thing is dropped an octave?

[Bluewine]

Best pro bass players?

For me there is no "best" anything. There are bass players I like and there are different types of bass players.

5 string bass guitars, when I started playing bass in 1965 there were no 5 string bass guitar to my knowledge, so the 5 string bass never resonated with me.

Blue

Edited July 12, 2018 by Bluewine

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

For me there is no "best" anything.

For a relativistic viewpoint we could maybe start with Einstein but perhaps finish the race with Usain Bolt

To be or not with Shakespeare and get into a purple haze with Jimi Hendrix

But anyway, "best" here is a generic term to describe folk who have reached the pinnacle of their profession / sport / art or whatever and command the respect of their peers and the general public

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

in 1965 there were no 5 string bass guitar to my knowledge, so the 5 string bass never resonated with me.

In 1965 there were no mobile phones, only landlines. However do you find mobile phones currently resonate with you?

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

For a relativistic viewpoint we could maybe start with Einstein but perhaps finish the race with Usain Bolt

To be or not with Shakespeare and get into a purple haze with Jimi Hendrix

But anyway, "best" here is a generic term to describe folk who have reached the pinnacle of their profession / sport / art or whatever and command the respect of their peers and the general public

In 1965 there were no mobile phones, only landlines. However do you find mobile phones currently resonate with you?

I love the smart phone. Never had any use for a 5 string bass guitar.

 5 String Bass Guitars, Lots, actually most guys I see use them, personal preference, right?

Pic, nice 4 string, I'm stuck in the 60s.

Blue

 

 

Edited July 13, 2018 by Bluewine